Craig Blais, chief executive of the Worcester Business Development Corp., was always optimistic that the city’s new 46-acre life sciences campus, called “The Reactory,” would succeed in the end.
But even Blais, whose nonprofit has overseen redevelopment of the former Worcester State Hospital since 2017, wasn’t expecting success to come quite so fast.
Even before the WBDC has finished necessary road work and other infrastructure improvements at the site, China’s WuXi Biologics announced in May it was purchasing one of the Reactory’s parcels to construct a $60 million biomanufacturing facility. At the same time, WuXi also secured an option to purchase a second parcel at the sprawling campus, which sits next to UMass Medical Science Park.
Then this month, Webster-based Galaxy Life Sciences LLC announced it was purchasing a third parcel at the Reactory to build a $50 million clinical and commercial life-sciences manufacturing facility. In addition, Galaxy and the WBDC announced the company had secured the right to buy the rest of the developable land at the Reactory, where Galaxy could theoretically build two to three additional facilities.
“The market was a lot hotter than we ever thought,” said Blais of his organization’s rapid-fire deals at the Reactory. “It absolutely went faster than we expected. These types of [site conversion] projects usually take 10 or more years to finish. We did it in three.”
Incubators Act as Pipeline for Expansion
The Reactory’s quick success is leaving some in Worcester hungry for more life science successes.
“We’re on the move,” said Jon Weaver, chief executive of Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, a nonprofit that runs four early-stage life-science incubators in Worcester. “It’s all coming together to make a true life sciences cluster in Worcester. We hope to see much more.”
Weaver and others stress that no one believes Worcester will become the next Kendall Square, the 9.5 million-square-foot megacluster in East Cambridge. But they’re convinced Worcester is poised to grab a significant piece of the business spreading out from Cambridge, where sky-high commercial property prices are forcing many life science companies to look elsewhere to locate or expand operations.
According to Weaver, Worcester is pursuing its niches in contract research, contract manufacturing, biotech manufacturing and startups.
WuXi, which has already started preliminary construction work at the Reactory, and Galaxy Life Sciences, a unit of Webster-based Galaxy Development LLC, have confirmed that Worcester meets developers’ requirements.
Mike O’Brien, chief executive of Galaxy Development, said there’s “no doubt” there’s a need for more biomanufacturing space in Massachusetts – and in Worcester in particular.
A pair of life science developers have made commitments to build life science manufacturing facilities on the 46-acre former Worcester State Hospital campus, which is being repositioned as a biomanufacturing hub called The Reactory. Galaxy Life Sciences this month agreed to purchase one site for a planned $50 million clinical manufacturing facility. Image courtesy of Galaxy Life Sciences
Galaxy is in discussions with several companies about potentially establishing biomanufacturing operations at its planned 65,000-square-foot facility at the Reactory, O’Brien said. And he’s confident Galaxy will “very soon” secure tenants for other parcels at the site. Galaxy’s option to purchase the rest of the Reactory site is dependent on the WBDC finishing its obligations for the infrastructure work – something all parties say is a foregone conclusion.
Matt Zicaro, vice president of real estate development at Galaxy, said Worcester has another strength beyond its relative proximity to Cambridge: Many life science companies want to bring their highly sophisticated manufacturing operations back to the United States after experiencing “quality challenges” at their overseas facilities.
“They want their manufacturing operations nearby,” he said. “The migration trend for manufacturing is definitely back to the U.S.”
Second Mini-Magnet
If the Reactory is fully built out in coming years – generating potentially hundreds of new life-sciences jobs in Worcester – it would further establish the city as an emerging life-science cluster, anchored by the adjacent UMass Medical Science Park and AbbVie Inc.’s research center. Meanwhile, Gateway Park, owned by Worcester Polytechnic Institute and located in the city’s Lincoln Square area, is also emerging as mini-magnet for life-sciences companies. Among Gateway’s current occupants is California-based biologics company LakePharma, which last year launched a new gene therapy facility in the park.
John Hallinan, chief business officer at statewide industry group MassBio said Worcester is “clearly establishing itself as a cluster” within the life science sector with the potential to establish itself as a major center within 10 to 20 years.
“The ingredients were always there,” he said, noting Worcester’s proximity to Cambridge, the UMass Medical Center and numerous colleges and universities in the city. “Now it’s all starting to come together.”
Tim Murray, head of the Worcester Chamber of Commerce and former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, said officials have had their eyes on the Worcester State Hospital property’s potential since its closure in the early 1990s.
Gov. Deval Patrick, who Murray served under from 2007 to 2013, pushed for the site’s redevelopment, but it took the Baker administration’s “Open for Business” initiative to formalize plans to turn the site into a life-sciences manufacturing park, he said.
“We all thought it would be successful, but I’m pleasantly surprised by the speed at which success was achieved,” he said.
Today, health care and higher education remain Worcester’s largest industry employers, but life science accounts for several thousand jobs, officials say, and could expand rapidly because the industry is known for expanding in geographic clusters.
“It’s an ecosystem that feeds off itself,” Murray said. “We think there’s plenty of room for more growth in Worcester.”
